Ha Haengeun
Contemporary Artist based in Seoul, Korea
Born in Jindo, Korea, she spent her early childhood there before moving to Seoul, where she now lives and works.
Ha Haengeun’s practice began with questions about death. Confronted with the loss of a loved one and the limits of human life, she found herself asking where life comes from, why we are born and disappear, and what it means to exist. Over time, however, these questions gradually shifted from death itself to life—how we come into being, how we are shaped through relationships, and how existence is continuously transformed.
Working across painting and ceramic sculpture, Ha explores the invisible connections between people, animals, plants, objects, memory, and time. Rather than depicting isolated beings or fixed narratives, she creates spaces where different forms of life encounter one another, forming new relationships and meanings. These spaces are not representations of a particular place, but symbolic grounds where life is continuously becoming.
A recurring figure in her practice is the Old Child, a symbolic presence that represents the human condition rather than a specific individual. Whether through figures, still life, imagined landscapes, or forms that gradually move toward abstraction, each body of work emerges from the same ongoing inquiry into life, relationships, and becoming.
Rather than treating painting and ceramic sculpture as separate disciplines, Ha approaches them as interconnected ways of thinking and making. Through her practice, she explores the unseen relationships that bind life together, inviting viewers to reflect on the human condition as something continuously shaped through relationships, transformation, and coexistence.